Pending dues not cleared, farmers block rail and road route

The Railway Protection force (RPF) Pathankot Division booked over 150 farmers including some by names on the charges of disrupting railway traffic, trespassing and hooliganism under section 174 (A), 145 and 147 of Railway Protection Act.

Demanding that their dues worth Rs 700 crore pending with cooperative and private sugar mills of the state be cleared, several farmers mainly cane growers blocked both road and rail traffic on the busiest Jalandhar-Jammu route on National Highway and ‘Railway route’ for over 6-hour Wednesday.

The Railway Protection force (RPF) Pathankot Division booked over 150 farmers including some by names on the charges of disrupting railway traffic, trespassing and hooliganism under section 174 (A), 145 and 147 of Railway Protection Act.

Farmers from Doaba and Majha regions sat on railway track and on national

highway near Bhangala under the banner of Doaba Kisan Sangarsh Committee’ led by Harjinder Singh and ‘Pagri Sambhal Jatta organisation led by Kamalpreet Singh Kaki, who is also the president of Pagri Sambhal Jatta.

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The dharna was lifted after holding a meeting with SSP Hoshiarpur, J Elanchezhian , ADC Anupam Klare and other senior officers from Gurdaspur district scheduled a meeting with Cane Commissioner Punjab on September 17.

Farmers said that if their payments were not cleared after the September 17 meeting they will again resorted to ‘rail and road roko’ in Jalandhar Cantt on main Amritsar- Delhi rail track on September 25.

Due to the blockade, commuters faced the heat as they had to wait for hours for trains in stations and on road as well.

Around 8 trains were halted which were on the way to Pathankot, Jammu, Katra, Delhi, Mumbai, Indore and Ahmedabad. Some trains were diverted from Pathankot to Amritsar and then Amritsar to Delhi.

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